Staff Reporter :
The Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) has given an ultimatum to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to cancel the recent power price hike order within 10 days.
Otherwise, the CAB would go for legal action to realise its demands.
The consumers’ right body placed the demand in a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the city on Sunday.
CAB President Ghulam Rahman demanded ‘cancellation of BERC’s power price hike order and decrease electricity price on justification of oil price’.
He said, BERC has violated consumers’ right through raising the latest round of power price and ignoring power price decreasing proposal.
CAB also called for reduction in the ‘unfair and unreasonable’ expenditure in power generation, transmission and distribution and for a tariff on importing electricity.
The BERC ignored public opinion and the proposal to reduce the cost of electricity at the public hearing, the CAB president said.
He said, “If the government does not do so within 8-10 days we will take legal action to protect the rights of consumers.”
The BERC unilaterally and irrationally raised the power prices by 5.3 per cent on an average ignoring the legitimate arguments of the consumers during public hearings on proposed price hike held between September 25 and October 4.
‘We will have no other option but to initiate legal process against the BERC if they do not scrap their order within 10 days,’ said Ghulam Rahman, who also served as the chairman of the BERC from September 2007 to June 2009.
CAB Energy Adviser M Shamsul Alam described their arguments at the press conference while Mubasshar Hussain read out their demands.
At a discussion meeting held in early November last year, CAB proposed a rational decrease in power tariff. A 15-point recommendation was put forward to the government. If these were implemented, according to CAB, power generation costs could be reduced and it would have been possible to reduce the price by 28 paisa per unit.
Analysts have calculated how costs could be cut rather than increased. Yet bypassing the public outcry and the recommendations of the public hearing, the authorities went ahead with the increase in power prices. With such an act, the government has, in fact, disregarded the people’s opinion. The interests of the people have been grossly ignored.
What the authorities need to do is to pay attention to reducing production costs and system loss and also bring an end to the corruption and pilferage in the power sector. Such measures will definitely reduce the costs. Power generation should be increased in more technically sound power plants and emphasis be given on furnace oil fired plants rather than those running on diesel, CAB body raised the question.
As the price of fuel oil has fallen considerably in the international market, is it not possible for the government to reduce the price of power in line with the global trend? It can at least check further rise in power prices, said the CAB energy adviser.
